Cases of Americans or South Koreans defecting to North Korea are extremely rare, while North Koreans crossing into South Korea are more common.
A US tourist crossed the border into North Korea, UN says. South Korean media reports he's a US soldier.
A US tourist crossed the heavily fortified border from South Korea to North Korea on Tuesday, according to the United Nations.
The United Nations Command, which runs the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) and Joint Security Area (JSA), said in a statement that the American was on a JSA orientation tour when he crossed the border without authorization.
"We believe he is currently in DPRK custody and are working with our KPA counterparts to resolve this incident," the UN said.
The DMZ is a buffer zone between North and South Korea, which is filled with landmines, surrounded by barbed wire and electric fencing, and is heavily guarded.
South Korean media has described it as a defection, though it is currently unclear if this is the case.
According to The Korea Herald, an English-language newspaper based in Seoul, the man was a US soldier, although the newspaper was unable to confirm if he was stationed in South Korea or visiting the country as a tourist.
South Korea's Dong-a Ilbo newspaper identified him as Travis King, a US Army soldier with the rank of private second class, citing South Korean army sources, but Insider was unable to verify this information.
Insider contacted the US Department of State for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
Cases of Americans or South Koreans defecting to North Korea are extremely rare, while North Koreans crossing into South Korea are more common.
More than 30,000 North Koreans have fled south since the 1950-1953 Korean War, according to the Associated Press.
"THEY'RE ALL DEAD, AND UKRAINE HAS NO REAL MEN LEFT" - SCOTT RITTER | REDACTED WITH CLAYTON MORRIS
OH SH*T, IT'S STARTING, PUTIN LAUNCHING MASSIVE OFFENSIVE | REDACTED WITH CLAYTON MORRIS
Full episode: July 18, 2023.
Timestamp:
Begins at 36:41 Putin's Invasion Force.
1:05:48 Nordstream Discovery.
1:26:54 Muslims Protest Trudeau.
1:42:59 Big Pharma.
Vacationers on Spain’s famed Ibiza island are being turned away from a beach after the discovery of high levels of fecal matter in the water.
Other beaches on Ibiza temporarily closed this summer after water contamination concerns
FBI’s FD-1023 Document Detailing Biden’s Bribery Scheme is Finally Released to the Public
The House Oversight Committee has released the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s FD-1023 informant document showing current President engaged in a multi-million dollar bribery scheme as former Vice President Joe Biden.
The document details the Confidential Human Source (CHS) traveling with Alexander Ostapenko to a meeting between Mikolay Zlochevsky, then the head of the Ukrainian gas firm Burisma that hired Hunter Biden for a board seat. Burisma’s CFO Vadim Pozharsky is reported as stating at the meeting that Joe Biden’s son was brought on board to “protect us, through his dad, from all kinds of problems.”
So, what was the cause?
EXPLOSION RIPPED THROUGH CENTRAL JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA
Lesufi said that while gas was suspected as the cause of the explosion on downtown Johannesburg's busy Bree Street, it was not clear if it came from a leak in the city's underground pipes or from another, undetermined source.
Johannesburg gas supplier Egoli Gas said in a statement it was unlikely that one of its pipelines was responsible. The company said there was no interruption in its supply in the area and its investigators had found no leaks.
Suspected gas explosion in Johannesburg rips open roads and flips cars during rush hour, injuring 9
JOBURG CBD EXPLOSION | CCTV FOOTAGE OF THE MOMENT THE BLAST OCCURRED
BREAKING ALERT! BIGGEST RED FLAG EVER HAPPENED, POLAND WILL ENTER UKRAINE, 2500 US TROOPS TO IRAN
FLASHBACK: Former Bush/Clinton White House Chef Drowned in 2015
Back in 2015, Former White House chef for Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, Walter Scheib went missing while hiking outside the city of Taos, New Mexico.
According to authorities, Scheib went missing after hiking in the Taos Ski Valley, located about 10 miles outside of Taos.
After several days of searching, Scheib’s dead body was found by an emergency rescue team and a state medical examiner confirmed it was likely he died by drowning.
BANNON & ALEX JONES EXPLAIN THAT WE’RE IN AN ‘OPPENHEIMER MOMENT’ WITH AI & BIOWEAPONS
Bannon & Alex Jones Explain That We’re In An ‘Oppenheimer Moment’ With AI & Bioweapons.
LAB OPERATING IN REEDLEY SHUT DOWN AFTER OFFICIALS FOUND INFECTIOUS AGENTS AND CHEMICALS
"I've Never Seen Anything Like This" - Mysterious Chinese Bio-Lab Discovered In Remote California City
What was supposed to be an empty building used only for storage was home to a black-market type of lab testing facility.
Florida is experiencing an increase in LEPROSY cases with nearly 20% of cases across the country coming from the center of the state
- Central Florida accounts for 81 per cent of cases reported in the state
Digitalization is the "new normal".
Stamps without a barcode will no longer be valid for postage after a new design has been introduced.
The change is part of a new scheme to digitalise stamps, and from now on they will all feature a scannable barcode.
Royal Mail deadline passes to use old style stamps as new surcharge now applies.
Chinese youth to have smartphone, internet use curbed
Chinese children and teens will be cut off from accessing the internet at night and have their smartphone use curbed under new rules unveiled Wednesday aimed at fighting internet addiction.
Under the restrictions, set to come into force on September 2 following a public consultation, anyone under the age of 18 will be cut off from accessing the internet with a mobile device between 10 pm and 6 am.
A tiered system for managing smartphone usage time will also be imposed, spanning a maximum of 40 minutes a day for those under the age of eight to two hours for 16- and 17-year-olds.
The new rules — proposed by the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) — are some of the most stringent in the world.
Parents will be able to bypass them if they wish, however.
The CAC said the rules would “improve the positive role of the internet, create a favourable network environment, prevent and intervene in minors’ internet addiction problems, and guide minors to form good internet use habits”.
The measures would build upon existing efforts to strengthen the online protection of minors, it added, including by “enriching age-appropriate content” and reducing “the influence of bad information”.
Beijing authorities have pursued expansive regulation of the domestic tech sector in recent years, due in part to concerns over the risk posed to young people by digital technology.
In 2021, China capped the amount of gaming time for children with the stated aim of fighting addiction, and froze approvals of new games for nine months, hammering the bottom lines of many companies including sector titan Tencent.
And Wednesday’s decision suggests Beijing’s regulatory clampdown on domestic tech giants continues.
Stocks of many leading Chinese internet firms fell Wednesday following the CAC’s announcement, with Tencent’s Hong Kong-listed shares down 3.0 percent.
Meanwhile, web search, AI and online services giant Baidu saw its shares fall 3.75 percent during trading in Hong Kong.
JAPANESE MAN SPENT $14K TO TRANSFORM HIMSELF INTO COLLIE
There should be no question that Planet Earth is a lunatic asylum for the criminally insane.
The Japanese man who spent a fortune “transforming” himself into a dog is hitting back at haters who claim he should go to “therapy” after he took his first ever “walk” in public last week.
Man who 'transformed' himself into a wolf said he now feels 'free'
Not much reporting of the floods in China in western media?
WHAT DOES ELON MUSK AND SPACEX HAVE TO DO WITH THE INVASION OF THE US AT THE SOUTHERN BORDER?